This invention relates to methods and compositions for potentiating the effectiveness of cancer chemotherapeutic agents.
In another respect, the invention pertains to such methods and compositions which permit one to increase the effectiveness of cancer chemotherapeutic agents, such that these agents can be used at lower dose rates, without sacrificing the efficacy of the agent.
In still another aspect, the invention concerns cancer chemotherapeutic compositions which include a combination of chemotherapeutic components which either cause cancer cell apoptosis or reduced proliferation rate or both.
Numerous cancer chemotherapeutic agents are known. In many cases, however, the administration of such agents at effective dose rates cause undesirable side effects which severely limit their utility. Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to provide methods and compositions that would potentiate the chemotherapeutic effects of such agents, such that they could be effectively administered at lower dose rates, thereby reducing or eliminating such undesired side effects.
I have now discovered that the effect of cancer chemotherapeutic agents is significantly potentiated by formulating them with a potentiating component which is a member selected from the group consisting of a mineral ascorbates, Vitamin C metabolites and Vitamin C-derived furanones. By this technique, the same cancer chemotherapeutic effect is attained at significantly lower dose rates, in some cases at dose rates only about one-tenth of that required if the chemotherapeutic agent alone is administered.